Taken from http://www.recycle.co.uk/:
"Recent evidence indicates that large amount of e-waste, which is the term for obsolete or broken down electronic equipment, is being taken from the United Kingdom and dumped in countries all over Africa. Ghana and Nigeria are two countries in particular that have reported large amounts of e-waste being shipped illegally from the United Kingdom. The government of the UK says that the surging amounts of waste make it extremely difficult to regulate, and that many businesses think that they are dealing with legitimate waste disposal companies."
You can read the full article here.
Just posted today:
"Environmental watchdogs have halted an illegal shipment of waste headed for West Africa. Leaving from Scotland, the Environmental Agency managed to halt the shipment of thousands of old televisions and tyres that were being illegally sent to Western Africa. According to the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) its inspectors were able to stop four containers from being shipped to Nigeria and Ghana after a tip-off was received."
You can read the full article here.
Is this really what the world has come to, dumping its waste on other countries....countries who have enough poverty and suffering without having this! I have never heard of this before and had no idea that it was going on, I do have to admit that I have been naive enough to not ever question what really happens to e-waste before, I think I've just always presumed that we recycled what we could???? It saddens me to think that we care so less for our world to treat it like a huge rubbish dump.
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5 comments:
V. thought-provoking post. I watched a TV programme about life in India earlier this year, where I was staggered by the amount of recycling that went on (stripping the copper wire out of discarded electric cables, for example) and at the same time, horrified by the conditions the recyclers worked in. There is no easy answer. But as reduce is better than re-use, and re-use is better than recycle, the real issue is to stop overconsumption in the first place. Which means asking yourself an uncomfortable question, like whether you actually *need* a new mobile phone.
Indeed thought provoking - I sometimes think that if we really knew all that goes on in our world we'd be absolutely horrified. Can we ever persuade people to use less I wonder and like KL says do we actually "need" much of what we buy? It's a huge question but one that must be addressed.
Jane
Yeah I'd heard about this before - usually it involves hazardous waste (nasty chemicals and the like), it's terrible isn't it? We try and reduce landfill waste here by amongst other things putting a high tax on it, so there will always be people willing to act illegally to make some cash - a sad state of affairs really
I try to take my rubbish down to the local tip where they have recently built a big new recycling centre. I would hope that my local council doesn't get involved in these kinds of shenanigans!
The problem is that white goods just do not seem to last like they use to either... I read that white goods are designed to fail after 5 or so years so that we buy more... I find this a rediculous concept but wouldn't put it past the manufacturers...
frightening really isn't it...
x Alex
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